Railway-spike



UNITED STATES PATENT Orrice..

HOWARD GREER, OF LAKE VIEW, ASSIGNOR 'IO HIMSELF, AND MORRIS SELLERS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RA! LWAY-=SPl KE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 387,067, dated July 31, 1888. Application filed February 18. 1888. Serial No. 264.458. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOWARD GREEK, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at LakeView, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented or discovered a certain new and useful Improvement in Railway Spikes, of which improvement the following is a specification.

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of a railway-rail spike illustrative of my present irnprovement. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the shank in the plane of the dotted linexm. Fig. 3 shows the same invention as applied in connection with anotherimproved featureinspikemaking. Figs. 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views of the shank of Fig. 3 in the planes of the lines y 3 y/y.

My present invention relates to that class of spikes made by transversely severing a rolled blank, the cross-section of the blank being exactly or approximately the shape and size of a side view of the spike. Such spikes will have parallel sides, and a rolled as distinguished from an upset head; but having parallel sides U in thehook part as well as in the shank and the same width in both there are no side projections to which the ordinary claw-bar can be applied for drawing the spike. By my present invention I provide for this defect by making a rearwardly-projecting lug or lip on the back face or side of the spike-head, or the side away from the rail, and this lug I make in such position and of such form that the point of an ordinary claw-bar or thepoint or edge end of an ordinary crow-bar may be inserted thereunder, so as thereby to draw the spike; and in connection with this I sometimes employa taper on the rail-face or back face of the upper end of the shank, or on both faces, so as to get a lower bite for drawing purposes whenever desired.

Referring, first, to Fig. 1, the spike is cut from a rolled blank. The form of the shank l is immaterial. The head 2 has the usual hook or lip 3 for engaging the rail flange when driven, and this it does in the usual way. On the rear of the head is a lug, 4., the essential features of which are, first, that when the spike is driven the lug shall be so far above the face of the tie that a drawing tool or implement of some kind can be inserted far enough beneath it to start it without seriously or materially breaking the fiber of the wood of the tie immediately beneath it; and, second, that the lower face of the lug shall be so shaped that the point or end of a drawing tool or implement will readily make a holding bite or en gagement therewith. But while the elements referred to may be varied at pleasure within thelimits thus specified the construction shown in the drawings is believed to be the best. As there illustrated,the plane of tbelower face of the lug 4, as represented by the dotted line a a, is parallel, or approximately so,to the plane of the lower face of the lip or hook 3, (represented by the dotted line c 0;) also,the lowermost point of the lug 4 is, when the spike is driven, alittle above the upper face of the tie, to represent which latter I have drawn the dotted line 0 6. From this, the manner ofapplying and using the claw-bar or other tool or implement in drawing the spike will be readily understood.

With some forms ofspikcs and in somekinds of wood while the spike can be started in this way and partly drawn it still holds to the wood so tightly that a new bite is necessary. WVhilc this may be secured in the ordinary way by putting a block or stone under the clawbar,so as to raise its fulcrun the better way is to bring the claw-bar around to the side of the spike, so that it shall work in a vertical plane, passing longitudinally through the track'rail, or parallel or approximately parallel to such a plane. Then, by inserting one claw of the claw-bar under the lip or hook 3 and the other under thelugtand resting the claw-bar on the rail-flange for a fulcrum, the drawing of the spike may be continued and, in most cases, completed.

\Vith some woods and some spikes theholding power of one to the other is so great that sometimes the second bite thus provided for will not secure the complete drawing of the spike without danger of bending. In spikes intended for such a market (and also as an aid to driving, as in Case A,) Iadd a taper, 5,Fig. 3,which extends along the rail-face of the upper end of the shank, a distance and at an angle about equal to the length and angle of the bevel 6 of the spikepoint, and also add a like beyel, 7, to the other side. This is done in the rolling of thebar from which the spikes are severed. Then, when the drawing action of the claw-bar beneath the hook 3 and lug 4 is ended, the prongs or claws of the claw-bar (the recess or slit between them being usually V-shaped) may be caused to engage lower down beneath and against the swelling sides of the inclines 5 7, and, still using the railfiange as a fulcrum, the drawing of the spike may readily be completed.

I am aware ofthe construction ofspike shown and described in Patents Nos. 345,423, 354,116, and 371,185, in each of which a backwardly and downwardly extending arm, as it is called in the two patents first nanied,or pro jection, in the patent last named, is so made as to enter or embed its point or lower face in the wood of the tie when driven. The rearwardly'projecting lug of my present invention differs radically from that above referred to, in the fact that when the spike is driven the lower face of the lug at its outermost end stands clear of the wood of the tie sufficiently for the 25 insertion of the point ofa claw-bar or suitable lever by which to draw the spike.

I claim herein as my invention 1. A railway-spike havingahook, 3, for engaging (when driven) the rail-flange, and a 30 lug, 4, on the rear of the spike-head, arranged and shaped to stand at its outermost end clear of and a little above the upper face of the tie, substantially as set forth.

2. In arailway-spike,a back-lug,4,the lower 5 face of which is in a plane higher than and parallel, or approximately so, to the plane of the lower face of the hook 3, substantially as set forth.

3. A railwayspike having a hook, 3, alug, 4o 4, and inclines 5 7, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

HOYVARD GREER.

Witnesses:

CHARLES F. LoEsoH, JACOB GREMLI, Jr. 

